How NASA plans to explore Mars with Microsoft's holographic goggles

During Microsoft's demo of its holographic headset HoloLens, the company barely mentioned the coolest way it's already using it: to develop software with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that will let scientists explore and work on Mars remotely.

Halfway through, the company showed a clip of a scientist wearing the headset as he points out an area of interest on the surface of Mars. HoloLens, the video explained, will be used by NASA scientists to work "on" Mars by July this year. Intrigued, we reached out to NASA, and in a new statement and video it explains a bit more about the project.

Over the past year, JPL and Microsoft have been building a software called OnSight that's designed to let scientists carry out their work as though they were standing on the distant planet they're studying. Using HoloLens.

Imagine being able to put on a headset and walk around another planet. Or control a rover as if you were in it. That's exactly what OnSight does.

According to JPL, it's the next best thing to actually being there. That includes not only inspecting the landscape, but communicating with other scientists from around the world through this virtual meeting place.

"By building tools that make us feel more connected to those robots and the environments they're exploring, we can change our experience of exploration in a very fundamental and exciting way," says Jeff Norris, the project manager of OnSight. "Not because it's a gimmick and not because it's fun, but because it will help them to reach scientific insight more quickly."

They'll also be able to actually programme Curiosity from within the HoloLens environment, JPL explained.